Mr Monk Goes to the Ice Cream Parlor
by SilentTrainConductor
Summary: Julie somehow manages to convince Monk to take her to get ice cream, and as Monk arrives he is faced with a memory he had forgotten.


_Haven't seen that many Monk episodes, so please excuse discontinuities, as well as character flaws, but please tell me about them, I love learning about this show and the characters. _

_For those with a livejournal, just made a community on lj for Tony Shalhoub, info and link in my bio. _

_Just a small character sketch ficlet, if done well enough, maybe I'll write out a mystery story soon. Enjoy!_

**Mr. Monk Goes to the Ice Cream Parlor **

"Come on Mr. Monk, please?" Hands lightly squeezed the sleeve of an older man, and his hands could be seen brushing the smaller ones off, and straightening his sleeve once more.

"Julie," The man sighed with exasperation "Your mother said to stay here, and you know I just can't drive you."

"But Mr. Monk…no offense, but it's so boring here…and none of my friends are at home. _They_ all get to go on summer vacations." Julie placed a pout upon her usually happy-go-lucky face, so Monk was left to grimace in return.

"Hey, let's have some fun here huh? Look at all the stuff we can clean up for your mom, won't she be happy when she comes back home?" The detective plastered a large smile on his face as he began to clean up his assistant's home. "Woo! Aren't we having fun?" He chortled as began straightening the books on the bookshelf.

Julie scoffed and rolled her eyes and flung herself on the couch, wishing her mom didn't have to go to the doctor's…and leave Mr. Monk with her. Of course her mom told Mr. Monk to watch Julie, but in reality it was always the other way around.

"Come on Mr. Monk, we ran out of ice cream, we can go really quick to pick some up…"

"Why would you want ice cream? Wouldn't you want something healthier? Like maybe…corn!"

"Corn?" Julie asked with a hint of horror, which increased as she noted Mr. Monk's enthusiasm. He was serious.

"I used to eat corn as a snack all the time when I was a boy. Ambrose would always try to take my share, but he stopped when I stabbed him with a fork."

"You stabbed your brother with a fork?" Monk looked up briefly from his tedious task of wiping down a lap and looked back down with a sort of mixed pride.

"It was an accident, but it showed him never to touch my food."

"So…you don't like ice cream?"

"It's unhealthy."

"Is that a no?"

"It has milk." With those words it seemed that Monk was trying to convince himself of something, rather than Julie.

"The store's a few blocks from here, please Mr. Monk."

"Why aren't you a persistent little girl." Monk gave her a tight smile, showing his frustration with the constant badgering.

"Mr. Monk what would you do if you ran out of…" a pause, what does Mr. Monk care for… "Wipes! What would you do if you ran out of wipes?"

"I would kill myself. No." Monk looked thoughtful. "Yes, I would kill myself."

"Mr. Monk…wouldn't you go out for more?"

"I suppose I could, but then I would have to go outside and touch…" a look of despair began to cloud his features "But it doesn't matter! I'll never run out. I'll make sure of that."

"Well Mr. Monk, like you need your wipes, I need this ice cream."

"You mean, if you don't have your ice cream…you will find your mind tormented by thoughts of death and disaster, your insides will begin to twist into each other, your heart will begin beating so hard you think it will burst, and you will want to bash your head in, just to escape the pain?"

A pause.

"Yes."

"Oh, well I don't think your mother will want you feeling that way. It's terrible isn't it?"

Julie nodded in agreement.

"But if you know it hurts so much, why don't you have extra?"

"Mom forgot to buy the extras." At this Monk grew pale.

"Yes, that happened to me once…you should always remind her. Always."

"Ok, Mr. Monk, so can we go for ice cream now?" Monk raised his shoulder and began to shake his head.

"I don't know Julie…I mean how will we…"

"We'll take a taxi, come on, you don't want me to die of ice cream depravation do you?"

"No…"

"Then let's go!" Julie ran out the front door, and Monk had no choice but to follow. He, of course, made sure the door was locked, multiple times.

o-O-o

"Julie…this isn't the store…"

"Well we wouldn't take a cab to the store if we could just walk there Mr. Monk. This is the best ice cream parlor in town, and you can even buy buckets of their ice cream."

"I knew that…" This store was familiar, worn, but something tugged at him. He held a mixture of emotions for this place…why?

Julie didn't reply as she pushed open the doors and a little cheerful bell signaled their presence. An elderly man looked up and gave Julie a warm smile.

"How are you doing Chiquita?"

"I'm doing all right, oh…Mr. Lopez this is Mr. Monk, he's here with me 'stead of Mom…so what's your special flavor this week?"

As Julie was peering through the counter staring at the brilliance of colors below, Monk was transfixed.

"It's…it's exactly…exactly the same." He whispered with true delight upon his brow.

"Adrian?" Julie looked up at the word, and to her surprise saw Mr. Lopez running towards Mr. Monk, and even more shocking, embraced the detective, and even more shocking than those two events combined, was that Mr. Monk returned the hug.

"I haven't seen you in what? Ten years?"

"Just, just about."

"Here, here, sit down, I still remember your table, right here." Monk gave the man a grateful smile, and gently eased himself into the chair, held his hand open to Julie who promptly gave him a wipe, curious on just how Mr. Lopez knew Mr. Monk so well."

As Monk stared straight ahead at the empty chair in front of him, Mr. Lopez placed a hand on his customer's shoulder. "I read about the accident after her funeral, I couldn't believe…she was so happy that day…"

Monk remembered that indeed she was, they both were.

-o-O-o-

"Stop it Adrian!" The angelic form before him giggled as he lightly tickled her ribs.

"No, not until you admit it."

"No! I-" A burst of laughter "Ok, you're right! You're right! Maybe I am a little ticklish."

"A little?" Another spasm of laughter

"Ok! Fine! I'm ticklish, fine."

"I'm never wrong." Adrian grinned as he wiped down the table.

"Ooh, so what flavor today Angelo?" Trudy asked glancing at the differing flavors.

"I call it Strawberry Cheesecake, with real bits of cake Maria made."

"Sounds delicious, I'll try it, how about you Adrian?"

"Rocky Road." Trudy glared at the uniformed man, who winced at the glance.

"Come on Adrian, try something different…"

"But I like Rocky Road, it was the first ice cream-"

"You've ever tasted, but there are other flavors."

"I need my Rocky Road Trudy, it's been a tough day. I can always count on the Man's Ice Cream."

"Man's Ice Cream?" Trudy echoed.

"That's what Christie calls it." Trudy smirked and looked to Angelo, who was grinning himself. Adrian mistaking the exchanged amused glances for a look of disapproval from Trudy…began trying to make peace.

"Tomorrow Trudy, I'll get a different one tomorrow. I promise." Trudy turned to her husband who had placed his puppy dog eyes upon his face.

"Fine. Tomorrow. I'll hold you to it." Adrian looked slightly worried, but his worry fled as he was handed a cone of his favorite ice cream flavor by his loving wife.

"Thank you. Love you." Trudy looked pleased at the comment and began eating her ice cream from its cup. Angelo placed a small cup next to her and explained.

"Some milk in case the bits of cake are too hard."

"Thank you, Angelo, so very thoughtful."

"So Adrian, how's work?"

"Terrible. Busy, I'm lucky I caught this small break, though I have to go in a couple of minutes…"

"What happened?"

"Woman, mid thirties found murdered in her home. We're still unsure who did it…the husband is going crazy though…I can't imagine…" Trudy picked his hand up in hers and kissed it lightly. Adrian smiled in appreciation at the gesture. He brought his hand up to brush a strand away from her face, but managed to knock down the cup of milk, right onto Trudy's coat jacket.

"Damnit! I'm so sorry Trudy, we have to clean it, we have to…"

"Hush hush Adrian, it's all right…I'll just take it off" She did so "See?" Adrian looked flustered and embarrassed, and hardly noticed Angelo cleaning up the mess, as he focused on Trudy, her face and her voice. He then looked at his watch.

"Ah I have to go, I'll see you later" They both stood up and locked hands, Adrian leaned in for a forceful kiss.

"Oh," he smiled as they parted "Strawberries."

"Mmm, I'm good aren't I?"

"Oh yes, delicious. I'll see you later, I may be home a bit late…"

"It's ok, so long as I see you."

"You will. Love you."

"Love you too."

But then later, as he listened in to Christie's elaborate tale, as he laughed, he got the call, and life was never the same.

As Trudy was taken to the emergency room, he was left with her coat jacket, what was left of it…and he tried so hard to smell her, but all he could smell was ash, death, carbon, and milk.

-o-O-o-

"Mr. Monk? We can go now…" Julie looked worriedly at her mother's boss who was still silent. Mr. Lopez, kept rubbing his hand in small circles on Monk's back.

"Hm? Oh, all right Julie..." He stood up and began making his way to the door, Julie ahead of him, when he stopped and turned to face Mr. Lopez who was still at the same spot.

"Angelo? Can-can I take a bucket, of that flavor…strawberry cheesecake, with me? Do you still have it?"

"Of course we do Adrian, it's one of the more popular." Angelo left to go into the back room for a couple of minutes and came back out with one of the buckets, and put his palm up as Monk offered him money.

"This one is on the house."

"Th-Thank you Angelo."

"Just be sure to come and visit, we've missed you" Angelo squeezed Monk's shoulder in sympathy and Monk left the store in a daze.

"This way Mr.Monk." Julie whispered and began waving her hands about to hail a taxi. She glanced to her left and noticed that Mr. Monk was still in another world, clutching his ice cream bucket as if his life depended on it. She had gotten Rocky Road, that had always been her favorite flavor.

As for Mr. Monk, Julie watched as he stepped into the taxi and she followed, he was already opening the bucket. To Julie's confusion Monk dipped his finger into the bucket, and licked the ice cream off his finger!

She got the wipes ready just in case, but to her surprise, he grinned and sighed happily.

"Oh, Strawberries" was all he whispered throughout the ride, and the smile never once left his face.

_**The End**_


End file.
